Frans Ellenbroek

I am a biologist and visual artist. For years I painted mainly portraits, on my own initiative or in commission. The special, sometimes melancholic atmosphere  of these portraits became the main subject matter of later work, in which animal figures often made their appearance. Although these animals are usually alone, retired into their own world, they are never lonely. The landscape is their companion. This landscape – to which the animals always have a special relationship – has taken the leading part in my recent work (from 2009). People and animals have left. What remains is a seemingly desolated landscape that invites the viewer to enter it, because this big space might conceal what he or she always wanted to find.